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Governor Cuomo

Essential workers are putting their lives on the line every day during this crisis--they are providing healthcare, ensuring that workers have the ability to travel to their jobs, processing food and stocking grocery stores, collecting garbage and keeping our streets clean, delivering packages, energy and telecommunication services, and keeping our government functioning.

Essential workers want to be safe and do their jobs with the dignity and respect that they deserve. This is as much about racial and gender justice as it is about economic justice: women, immigrants, and Black and Latinx workers are more likely to be essential workers.

We must do more to protect the 2.2 million essential workers in New York in order to prevent more unnecessary deaths and a second surge of COVID-19 in already devastated communities. The federal government is refusing to protect workers and their communities from COVID-19 and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration is not formally investigating any complaints from workers outside of the healthcare industry. For these reasons, we must turn to New York State to take action in order to protect essential workers and their communities from preventing a second wave of COVID19.

Stand with essential workers to call for a New York Health and Essential Rights Order (NY H.E.R.O.) to protect the essential workforce and the communities they serve.

The NY H.E.R.O. Executive Order will quickly improve the health and safety in workplaces across New York by implementing the following measures:

HEALTH & SAFETY PROTOCOLS TO PROTECT PUBLIC HEALTH

Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) Requirements

Physical distancing requirements

Hand hygiene requirements

Disinfection and deep cleaning requirements

The requirement to provide notice when workers contract the virus

Quarantine housing for workers living in employer housing

ENFORCEMENT & PROHIBITION ON RETALIATION

Workplaces should establish a facility pandemic safety committee that can raise concerns about health and safety conditions and notify the employer about worker complaints and concerns

No employer should take action against workers who raise any concern or information about workplace health and safety practices

Any worker has the right to refuse to do work under conditions where they feel at risk of contracting or spreading COVID-19

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As the state considers reopening the economy, we urge Governor Cuomo to issue a Health and Essential Rights Order (NY H.E.R.O) in order to mitigate the public health risks for workers and New York State communities.

There are more than two million frontline workers across the state that have no choice but to leave their homes and report to work each day in essential sectors, potentially exposing themselves, their families, and their communities to COVID-19. Yet, many essential workers are still not receiving adequate PPE and are not able to practice social distancing, creating high risks of infection not only among the workforce but the general public.

The Trump Administration has disastrously failed to protect workers and our communities from COVID-19 and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration is not formally investigating any complaints from workers outside of the healthcare industry. These conditions exacerbate the prospect of a second surge of COVID-19 in already devastated communities. For these reasons, it is up to New York State to protect the health and safety of all essential workers during this crisis.

We urge Governor Cuomo to issue a New York Health and Essential Rights Order (NY H.E.R.O) to fully protect all New Yorkers during the pandemic in order to mitigate the risks of exposure and spread of COVID-19.

This executive order will ensure that essential business’ COVID-19 policies include adequate health & safety protocols to protect public health: Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) at all times, physical distancing requirements, hand hygiene requirements, disinfection and deep cleaning requirements, requirements to provide notice to workers and local health departments of COVID-19 cases, and quarantine housing for workers living in employer lodging.

NY H.E.R.O. will empower workers to raise concerns about health and safety in the workplace while protecting them from retaliation by their employer when they complain. Workers will also have the right to refuse work under conditions where they feel at risk of contracting or spreading COVID-19.

By implementing these measures, New York workers and our communities will be better protected now and in the future as the state considers reopening the economy.

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